Did vista nuke access to my hp recovery partition?

S

Skolar

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 19, 2004
Messages
307
Okay I gave my friend a copy of Vista RC1 and he thought it was just a skin for XP...on a DVD...even after I explained that it was a new operating system and all that jazz, and he loaded it on. After I recovered all his files...he didn't tell me that he didn't enter the CD key I gave him for it and now I can't get it to recognize any CD key and get it out of limited use mode.

It's an HP Pavilion. I can see the partition with the recovery data to get it to a completly new computer with media center again, but I can't access it. From everything I've read there is supposed to be an HP boot screen that pops up on boot that gives you the option to restore from that partition, but it doesn't load. I've looked through the BIOS to see if he had disabled it, but there isn't an option to do so anyway. So now I'm wondering exactly how to access that partion. I can't tell the computer to boot from a specific partition in any way shape or form.

HP has discontinued support for his computer (strange because it's only like a year old...) so they aren't any help and don't want to be. So I'm wondering if there's anybody that has had any experience with restoring HPs.
 
How did he load Vista?

Did he re-partition his drive so he could dual boot, or just install Vista over XP?
Either way, I'm pretty sure there have been issues with the reliability of recovery partitions.
 
Oh yeah he just loaded it right over XP media center.

I've already called HP and they don't care cause the notebook is out of warranty. He doesn't have a media center disk, classic OEM.
 
F10 at boot, advanced, destructive recovery.

He will loose anything that was on the drive, but that should restore it to an "as new" install.

Oh, and it takes forever for this process to complete, br patient.
 
Went to bios again and it's crippled. There's like 3 options there that you might be able to do something with, but nothing worthwhile. I'm actually on his notebook right now. I reinstalled Vista and did it right, so it will be good til May when it expires. Then I'll be far away and it's his problem.

Thanks for the help though.
 
Skolar said:
Went to bios again and it's crippled. There's like 3 options there that you might be able to do something with, but nothing worthwhile. I'm actually on his notebook right now. I reinstalled Vista and did it right, so it will be good til May when it expires. Then I'll be far away and it's his problem.

Thanks for the help though.
Click to expand...

What he probably did was install it without the key and selected home basic or something other than Ultimate. That's would explain your key wouldn't work.
 
Actually it did say home basic. I was wondering where he got that version from, but I guess they're all on the same disc anyway.
 
Skolar said:
Actually it did say home basic. I was wondering where he got that version from, but I guess they're all on the same disc anyway.
Click to expand...

They are. If you don't enter a key you get to decide which version to install. The keys tel the installer which version to install.
 
If the f10 doesn't work buy a set of restore disks from hp. They should be less then 40 bucks and HP overnights parts out. You can also try to sweet talk a tech at compusa as they are sent sets of restore disks by HP and can prob burn you a copy if you are really nice(or bribe). I'm sure other chains have the disks as well.
 
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